Ryan Thacher has always arrived in Kalamazoo, Mich., as a winner, contributing to the Southern California all-stars’ past three titles at the USTA 18-under national team championships the week before.

But for the third consecutive year, Thacher left Stowe Stadium without a title.

Competing in his third straight final at the USTA National Championships – the past two in the 18-under division – the Harvard-Westlake of Studio City graduate got off to a fast start Sunday against Texas A&M sophomore Austin Krajicek, but couldn’t sustain the momentum, suffering a 2-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-0 setback in the first battle of left-handers in finals history.

Thacher, the No. 8 seed, suffered a 7-5, 2-6, 7-6 (5) to Florida’s Brennan Boyajian in the 16-under final in 2006 and was defeated 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 by Woobridge of Irvine’s Michael McClune in last year’s 18-under championship in the first best-of-five match of his career.

Despite winning several gold tennis balls in singles and doubles at the national level, one of the biggest prizes in junior tennis eluded the Stanford-bound talent once again, as the fifth- seeded Krajicek – an All-American and co-Big 12 Conference Freshman of the Year – secured the wild-card berth into the men’s main draw at the U.S. Open.

“I still can’t believe that I lost the last set 6-0,” Thacher said while addressing the crowd following the match.

In their last meeting at the Easter Bowl in Rancho Mirage in April 2006, Thacher defeated Krajicek 6-3, 7-6 (5) in the round of 16 in the 16-under division.

It appeared Sunday’s final might be headed for a similar outcome following the first set, during which Thacher’s big serve and groundstrokes led to a convincing victory.

But after Thacher had seldom been broken throughout the tournament, Krajicek began to get a better read on the direction and the pace of his opponent’s serves, leading to several timely breaks the remainder of the match, including three in the final set.

“He has a really good serve, first and second serve,” Krajicek told ZooTennis.com. “In the beginning it was tough for me, with the wind too, adjusting a little bit. But I think I started to see a little better, move a little more toward the middle of the second set.”

Krajicek recorded his second service break of the third set to grab the two-to-one advantage and continued to build momentum throughout the final set in which Thacher tried a variety of shots, only to have the Bryan, Texas, resident fire back with a better one.

“He was a little steadier off the ground,” Thacher told ZooTennis.com. “Normally that’s not my problem, being aggressive off the ground. But today I never really found a groove, never felt like I was hitting it clean, and he was taking advantage of that. Hats off to him, he really played well, especially down the stretch.”

Thacher, a member of the nation’s top incoming freshman class according to TennisRecruiting.net, could play at the No. 1 singles position for Stanford this fall. But After playing 31 sets in a week and capturing third place in doubles, Thacher’s bid to become the first area player to win the 18-under singles title since Glendale’s Robert Yim in 2003 ended in disappointing fashion.

“I knew coming into the match that Ryan’s a really good athlete,”Krajicek told ZooTennis.com. “That he was going to get to balls and make me hit another shot. I did a good job of staying focused throughout the point and being ready for the next ball. That’s something you have to do against good players.”

Krajicek could draw Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer as his first-round opponent on the opening night of competition Aug. 25 in Flushing Meadow, N.Y., at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

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